Nutritional work, orchard certification, and logistics are among the tasks being developed by these two origins, which are increasingly participating in the global avocado market.

Over the past few weeks, we've been monitoring the increase in avocado shipments to Europe, with Peru playing a major role. However, other origins are also gaining a foothold in the European market, which imposes fewer restrictions on avocado imports than the United States.

In that scenario, there are countries that are experiencing interesting development, but whose product has improvement challenges that they are aware of and constantly paying attention to, both in the fields and from the exporting companies.

This is the case for Colombia and Kenya, whose evolution is expected by the market, to have better expectations, mainly in size and arrival, impacting the price of transactions.

Sebastián de la Cuadra Infante, CEO of Avobook, explains that “there are countries that face significant challenges in getting their fruit to market in optimal condition, both in terms of post-harvest handling and transit.”

“It is a fact of the matter that the more the fruit travels, the more problems it has; and that the fruit that travels the least is the best, because it has fewer factors associated with transit and cold,” he explains.

AVOCADO EXPORTS FROM COLOMBIA TO THE UNITED STATES

Colombia's challenges are mainly linked to what happens with the fruit in terms of nutrition and the certification of its fields.

According to De La Cuadra, “in the case of Colombia, work continues to ensure that the fields have a good nutrition system for the trees and that post-harvest practices are improved.”

“That’s important for defining their market, because this country should focus on sending increasing volumes to the United States, since it’s a very short travel destination. From Cartagena to Miami it’s three days by boat. To New York it’s five, versus the two weeks it takes to reach Europe. If a product origin has a nutritional sensitivity, it’s advisable that the fruit not travel too far,” explains the SEO specialist at Avobook.

To meet that premise, Colombia must concentrate part of its efforts on certifying more orchards under the North American phytosanitary protocol.

“The monitoring and sampling that verify the absence of pests takes time from one year to the next. Therefore, as this progresses and phytosanitary management is improved, areas will be opened up. Of the 32,000 hectares that Colombia has to supply the world with its product, 11,000 are authorized to enter the United States, according to data up to December 2023. But there could be many more if these openings continue, reducing its presence in Europe, where the journey is longer, to concentrate more volume in North America,” explains Sebastián de la Cuadra.

THE AVOCADO BUSINESS IN KENYA

Kenya is also experiencing a period of growth and learning, where all fields are different.

“This learning process isn’t about simply copying and pasting what’s done in other regions. Peru has sand dunes, Chile has a Mediterranean climate, Colombia has a tropical climate at high altitude. Kenya also has certain conditions that make it different from any other country. Therefore, as Kenya continues to expand its orchards and attract investors and companies, more professionals will arrive and be able to improve production conditions,” explains the CEO of Avobook.

Of course, it is a slow process, because what is improved at one moment shows its evidence in the medium term.

“It’s important to remember that, with fruit, you plant first and only start producing in the third year. So, there’s no feedback on what you did right or wrong until five or six years later. That’s why Kenia is experiencing all this learning now,” De La Cuadra points out.

But, without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges for Kenyan avocados is the impact of transportation on their arrival in Europe, which is their main market.

“What has hit us hard this year is the complexity of transport through the Suez Canal, which, for various reasons, is causing shipping companies to avoid passing through there. They are going around southern Africa, through South Africa, to reach Europe, and this is lengthening the fruit's journey, which used to take two weeks and now takes four,” De la Cuadra explains.

According to their analysis, “when you add those two weeks of transit, the fruit arrives in a more compromised state. Therefore, to ship fruit that has to travel a long distance, you have to do a good job in the field, in terms of nutrition, and also with the plant material, which is the genetic aspect, to ensure it's a good tree. In addition, you need to carefully manage the packing and the temperatures in the containers. And, of course, the final logistics have to be optimal.”

This is on the minds of Kenyan producers and exporters, who are making a significant effort to apply the lessons learned.

“For example, there are very good facilities and increasingly better professionals are arriving,” says Sebastián de la Cuadra, CEO of Avobook.